Ads That Push the Envelope

This article was written by Roy Williams of Entrepreneur.com. Roy is Entrepreneur.com's "Advertising" columnist and the founder and president of international ad agency Wizard of Ads.

Ads that have impact are like nitroglycerine: Handle them properly and they can move mountains for you; get careless with them and you'll blow yourself up.

The worst thing you can do when you've written a powerful ad is to show it to your friends and ask their opinion. Put an ad on trial and every juror will judge two things: Could this ad offend anyone? Was it entertaining?

Consequently, most ads aren't written to persuade; they're written not to offend. But the kinds of ads that produce results make us answer yes to these three questions: Did it get my attention? Was it relevant? Did I believe it? ...